I'm trying to get a crossover-cable network to work between two computers, a laptop and a desktop. The desktop is running Mepis Linux, and the laptop can run Mepis Linux or Windows.

I've never done anything network-related before, so I don't know what to do. The workgroup is MSHOME on both computers. The desktop's firewall is disabled.

Any other suggestions?

01-18-2006

dwks

Sorry for bumping this thread, but I couldn't edit my previous post for some reason (the Edit button never loaded).

The laptop is running Windows 98. I forgot to mention that.

I searched the Mepis forums, but I couldn't find anything on Windows 98. There's lots on Windows XP, but it doesn't help too much.

I can run Knoppix on the laptop, too.

[edit]
Well, what do you know. I can edit this post, but not the other one. Weird.
[/edit[

01-18-2006

bithub

Did you assign the computers IP addresses that are on the same subnet?

01-18-2006

CornedBee

The first step is to see if they can ping each other. Open a console and type
ping <ip of other computer>
If the packages all time out, the computers can't reach each other. If you don't know the IPs, you have a setup problem: note that in a direct crossover cable network you need to explicitely set the IPs of both computers for that network - unless one is running a DHCP server (very unlikely in your case), in which case only that computer needs it set explicitely.
If they can ping each other, the problem lies with higher-level stuff. In Win98, you must make sure you've got file shares installed and enabled. In Linux, you must set up Samba server and client: the samba server is for shares that the Windows computer should access, while the client is for mounting network shares, or just browsing them (there's a kioslave that browses Samba shares, though I think you must have a Lisa running for that, too).

01-25-2006

dwks

They can't ping each other. They both think they have the same IP address.

Quote:

you need to explicitely set the IPs

How do I do that?

01-26-2006

CornedBee

Network settings of your ethernet, select the TCP/IP properties, click Properties.
On one of the tabs in there, there's two radio boxes and a lot of edit fields. "Retrieve IP automatically." is one radio, and if it's selected, the edits are greyed out. "Manually set IP." is the other. Select it, and set the IP in the field below, to 192.168.x.y, where x is anything between 1 and 254, the same for both computers, and y is anything between 1 and 254, different for the two PCs. Then set the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. I believe there's no need to set a gateway.